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E had his class presentation last week on Clyde Vernon Cessna, founder of the Cessna Aircraft Corporation. He had to wear something similar to what Mr Cessna had worn back in the day. I made him this vest.

At first he wanted to buy his costume from Goodwill. I, on the other hand was too lazy to find a Goodwill around the area. But I know the nearest Joann and the idea of going to any fabric store always excites me. So I told him I would make him something.

I used the BurdaStyle pattern - Boy's Waistcoat 02/2013 #145. This was my first time using a downloadable pattern from this company. I've browsed through their pattern store before and I know that the pattern doesn't include seam allowance. But what I wasn't aware of was the fact that there were no illustrations in the sewing instructions (at least not for this particular pattern). On top of that, personally I think some parts of the instructions were inadequate and vague. Even after repeatedly reading them, I still felt hopeless. I had to keep reminding myself to take one step at a time and not to get overwhelmed with the overall process.

Despite the inadequacies in the sewing instructions, the pattern itself is accurate. The pieces matched up perfectly. The vest turned out pretty good, and E was happy.

One of the biggest challenges for me in sewing this piece was the welt pockets. Since it was difficult for me to comprehend most of the instructions, I went to YouTube and several sewing blogs for help. I found this video on how to sew single welt pockets extremely helpful. Her step-by-step instructions are very clear and easy to understand. I also did cross-referencing between the given instructions and the video to make sure everything matched up.

Still there were a few hiccups here and there. For example, the placement of the pockets was a bit off. The left side pocket is slightly higher than the right side. Also, there is a small puckering in the corner of the left pocket. I spent close to 5 hours from start to finish on just one pocket (the left side). The time was spent reading and trying to understand the instructions, looking for online tutorials, and finally sewing. However, once I got the hang of it, it took me less than an hour to construct the second one. The result was so much better and neater.

My first time sewing facings. I love the contrast between the facings and the linings.

How important is the orientation of the buttonholes? Should it be vertical or horizontal? I kind of messed up the buttonhole placement for this vest. Instead of placing them horizontally, according to the marking, I did them vertically. After realizing the mistake, I had to re-mark the rest of the buttonholes after I'd sewn the first one. Luckily there was enough space to accommodate them.

Overall, I'm happy with the finished look. I really love the style of Burda's patterns. However, I think I will wait until I'm much more confident at garment making before purchasing another pattern from the company. On a more positive note though, Burda does provide some sort of support on its website. I found this reply from one of Burda's staffs when I was browsing a thread on the discussion site.

Thank you, we try our very best to be present in these forums and see what our community is discussing. A note to everyone in this particular forum:

I know many of our older uploaded pattern instructions are missing vital information and or are vague. If you feel like your instructions are missing information or are hard to interoperate please emailanswers@burdastyle.com or meg@burdastyle.comand we will work through your pattern problems. A lot of the older patterns are not in our new instructions format that is more functional to navigate and read. So please email us if you want an updated pattern instruction. Thanks!!

It is hard for us to go back and update all our previous pattern instructions at once, since we are a small team. It is a process and one day we will get there.